Please discuss gender in Rowlandson's text entitled "The Sovereignty and Goodness of God."

"The Sovereignty and Goodness of God" was written by Mary
Rowlandson after she was taken captive in an Indian attack. The first draft of the work
was private; later she ammended and published it so she could demonstrate God's
sovereignty and goodness even during her harrowing ordeal. This writing is less about
gender than it is about the trials of living through a difficult ordeal; however, it is
the Indians' treatment of Rowlandson which provides a more interesting discussion of
gender in this writing.

Most of the people the Indians took
captive in these kinds of raids were women and children, partly because the men
generally died fighting to save their loved ones and partly because men were more
difficult prisoners. That does not mean, however, that the women and children were
treated with the kindness and generosity which most cultures afford
them.

During the first night of her "grievous activity,"
the tribe camps near a deserted farmhouse; Rowlandson's request to sleep inside is
derisively denied and she has to sleep outside. The next day, after she walked until she
was exhausted, Rowlandson writes that

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they set me upon a horse with my wounded child
in my lap, and there being no furniture upon the horse's back, as we were going down a
steep hill we both fell over the horse's head, at which they, like inhumane creatures,
laughed, and rejoiced to see
it.

Her child is sick, and
Rowlandson listens to her crying and moaning all day without relief;  instead of
offering her help or relief, "sometimes one Indian would come and tell me one hour that
'your master will knock your child in the head,' and then a second, and then a third,
'your master will quickly knock your child in the head.'" This continues for nine
days.

Later in her captivity, Rowlandson is allowed to go
visit her son who was also taken captive, but she is not allowed to stay with him. She
despises the food her captors eat; knowing this, they often deliberately give her the
foods she despises the most. They tell her that her husband has been killed (which is
not true); when they travel, she must wear a pack which is too heavy for her and is
given virtually nothing to eat.

The women of the tribe are
particularly cruel and treat her maliciously at every opportunity. They routinely deny
her food and kick her out of their tepees. One even throws ashes in Rowlandson's eyes in
anger. This is an interesting phenomenon which might be explained by jealousy except
that none of the Indian men made any physical overtures to Rowlandson. A case might be
made that the Indian women, who are also treated rather poorly by their men, take
advantage of the opportunity to mistreat someone even lower in rank than they
are.

These are all examples of the disregard her captors
have for Rowlandson; her gender is meaningless to them in terms of their attitude and
treatment toward her. The balance of power does shift a bit, however, when her captives
need her to do some sewing fine sewing for them. She does the work in exchange for money
or food, and in those exchanges she has the power. In every other kind of exchange
during her captivity, she is powerless and at the mercy of her
captors. 

In short, Rowlandson makes it clear that, while
she was a captive, her gender gained her no benefits from the men, and she was often
treated worse by the women because of her gender.